Egypt severs Gaza food arteries

The six tunnels along the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip contained piping, toys, spare auto parts as well as clothes and other products destined for the Palestinian territory, Egypt's official MENA news agency revealed.

The attacks on the tunnels is the latest move by Cairo -- an accomplice in the imposition of a 20-month "Israeli"-imposed blockade on Gaza -- to stop the delivery of food and supplies into the territory.

In mid March, "Israel" seized a flock of 560 sheep from entering the Palestinian ghetto and auctioned them off to the highest bidder.

"Israel" imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2007 after the democratically-elected Palestinian government Hamas took control of the territory. The blockade has been in place ever since.

The siege prevents necessary humanitarian aid and assistance from reaching the 1.5 million people inside the strip -- only about twice the size of Washington DC.

To add to the humanitarian catastrophe in the territory, "Israel" unleashed a three-week war on the sliver on December 27. Three weeks of ensuing airstrikes and a ground incursion inflicted more than $1.6 billion in damages on the Gazan economy.

The carnage also killed around 1,350 Palestinians and injured nearly 5,450 people -- mostly civilians.

Since then many Gazan youngsters have been forced to sift through garbage piles to make ends meet. Local scrap merchants pay children $.25 for every 10 kg of plastic or metal.

The youngsters say finding old scrap metal, shoes, dirty clothing and plastic shelving has become harder as the residents had no money to buy new products and were reluctant to throw out anything of even modest value.

In line with its efforts in support of "Israel", the Egyptian government has installed surveillance cameras along its border with Gaza -- an initiative that has won strong praise in Tel Aviv.

The cameras help Cairo in pinpointing tunnel entries, allowing them to be targeted by Egyptian forces and "Israeli" aircraft.